'I feel like Charlie Brown': OSU, OU fans manage confidence, doubt as epic Bedlam arrives

STILLWATER — Oklahoma State has entered the Bedlam football game as the higher ranked team before. The Cowboys have entered as the point-spread favorite.

Yet neither of those things guarantees a victory against rival Oklahoma.

This year, with the No. 7-ranked Cowboys playing host to the No. 10 Sooners at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium, OSU is both the favorite and the higher ranked team.

But with only two wins in the last 18 Bedlam meetings, OSU fans still can’t get comfortable in expecting victory.

“I feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football again,” said OSU fan Phillip Slavin. “Luckily, I have learned enough times not to get my hopes up. My head says OSU looks like the better team, but I will believe it when the clock strikes zero and OSU has more points than Oklahoma does.”

The Cowboys have won twice in Mike Gundy’s 16 previous seasons as head coach. They won once as the favorite — in 2011 when they went on to win the Fiesta Bowl and finished 12-1 — and once as the underdog, in 2014.

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“I haven’t been this excited or I haven’t felt like we were going to win in a long time,” said Dillon Smith, an OSU fan from Mustang. “It feels like 2011. But it also, with so much being on the line, it makes me nervous, too, especially considering our history against OU. It definitely has a different feel to me, like we have more of a chance than we usually do.”

Of course, on the Sooner side of things, this season has been enough of a wild ride to chip away at fans’ usual confidence.

“This OU football season has single-handedly put me on blood pressure medication,” said Sooner fan Renee Hays of Oklahoma City. “It started with Tulane and I haven’t been able to get off this roller coaster yet.

“We Sooner fans are spoiled. Our expectations are that our quarterback will win the Heisman and our team will, at the very least, win the Big 12 championship. Every. Single. Season. If even one of those things don’t occur, it’s a losing season in our eyes. It truly is hard to be humble when you’re a Sooners fan.”

The Sooners have experienced some offensive low points in the Lincoln Riley era, including the 14 points scored in a 13-point loss at Baylor two weeks ago.

Yet when it comes to Bedlam, you can’t blame OU fans for being confident, even as the underdog.

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“I’m somewhat confident,” said OU fan Sean Teague of Owasso. “On paper, OSU should win, but OU usually finds a way in this game.

“I’m usually more nervous about this game, but being the underdog has relieved some of that.”

Oklahoma State, after a rough start that included narrow victories over Missouri State and Tulsa, redefined itself as a defense-first team that relies on the run game offensively, though quarterback Spencer Sanders has been playing the most consistent football of his career the last six weeks.

“From the beginning of the year, I kind of always write this one off most of the time, right?” said Lee Cothran, a 2011 OSU graduate from Dallas. “Why would I not? And then they struggled so much … against Missouri State and Tulsa and everybody up until these last four or five games, really.

“If there’s an opportunity for OSU to do something special and get this win, that’d be awesome. But I don’t know, I’ve been hurt too many times. So I’m just trying to manage my expectations.”

And there’s still that College Football Playoff conversation, which OSU has crept into over the last couple of weeks. Staying in the mix would require a win on Saturday, then another win over Baylor in the Big 12 title game.

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“As far as the playoff talk, I just want to win Saturday, just so we can keep the train rolling and win the Big 12 first,” said OSU fan Tyler Lowe of Collinsville. “The playoff talk, because we’re kind of coming out of nowhere for it, it’s almost kind of hard to wrap your head around the impossible. A whole lot of things would have to go our way … but if we take care of our business and we finish 12-1, I think we would deserve to be in over a 13-0 Cincinnati, I’ll tell you that much.”

If OU wins Bedlam, the two teams would meet again for the Big 12 championship on Dec. 4 in Arlington, Texas. Then the Sooners could thrust themselves into the playoff chatter.

But first, OU needs an upset of its in-state rival.

“The slate is wiped clean when the crimson meets construction orange,” Hays said. “It comes down to who can play with the most heart for four quarters. I truly hope my Sooners will show up with that heart and some Sooner Magic and get the job done. I’ve upped my blood pressure medication just in case.”

No. 10 OU at No. 7 OSU

KICKOFF: 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater (ABC)

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OSU vs. OU football: Fans manage confidence, doubt in epic Bedlam